The document emphasizes the critical role of play in child development, highlighting it as a right recognized by the United Nations. It outlines various interactive games that parents and educators can use to observe and enhance children's social, emotional, and cognitive skills. Each game, such as 'Three Little Pigs' and 'Hide and Seek', is designed to stimulate specific developmental milestones and promote engagement.

1. Fitango Education
Health Topics
Play
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2. Overview
As a parent, you
know the importance of play and that, for a child,
to play is to learn. In fact, play is so essential to
optimal child development that it has been
recognized formally by the United
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3. Overview
Nations as a right of every child. But did you know
that play also offers a
perfect opportunity for you to observe a child’s
development? It’s true!
Encouraging developmentally appropriate indoor
and outdoor play is a great way to
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4. Overview
observe social, emotional, and cognitive
milestones that mark a child’s
development. Watching for the
developmental milestones that are appropriate for
a child’s age provides clues
to a child’s development and can help you identify
a child who might be at risk
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5. Overview
for a developmental delay or disability.
This topic will
teach you more about play for children and
suggest fun ways to engage and
educate your child.
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6. Game idea: Three little pigs
**Three Little Pigs**
?You can engage children’s
skills in imitation, pretend play, and storytelling
with this role-playing
game. Divide the group into roles from
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7. Game idea: Three little pigs
**Three Little Pigs**
the story “The Three Little Pigs”. Several children
might need to perform the
same role. While the teacher or another student
tells the story, the children
act it out, using areas designated by the teacher as
the three houses (e.g., an
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8. Game idea: Three little pigs
**Three Little Pigs**
area behind a bench could be the house of straw,
behind a tree could be the
house of sticks, and so on). Each time the wolf
“blows down” the “house”, all
the little pigs run to the next house with the wolf
chasing them. Each child
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9. Game idea: Three little pigs
**Three Little Pigs**
caught by the wolf becomes another wolf. At the
end of the story, the pigs can chase
the wolves away.
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10. Game idea: Crazy ball
**Crazy Ball**
?This game helps children
demonstrate and develop skills such as direction
following, imitating, turn
taking, and being able to differentiate between
concepts. Have the children
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11. Game idea: Crazy ball
**Crazy Ball**
form a line, leaving a few feet between each child.
Using one playground-sized
ball, have each child do something silly with the
ball while passing it down
the line. You can change the direction to alter
whether the child with the ball
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12. Game idea: Crazy ball
**Crazy Ball**
does the same thing or something different than
the child before him or her.
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13. Game idea: Duck, duck, goose
Duck, Duck, Goose?In this classic childhood
game, you can build on a child’s ability to follow
directions, awareness of
being a boy or girl, and ability to take turns.
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14. Game idea: Duck, duck, goose
Making slight changes to this old favorite can help
you keep an eye out
for some specific milestones. Tell the children that
“it” can pick another
child of the same (or opposite) sex only. Instead of
running, instruct the
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15. Game idea: Duck, duck, goose
children to hop, skip, or march when chasing the
“goose”. Have the children
make up and agree to some new facet of the
game.
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16. Game idea: Hide and seek
**Hide and Seek**
?This is a favorite game of
many children. It is a great game that
demonstrates a child’s ability to
understand placement in space, follow directions,
and cooperate with
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17. Game idea: Hide and seek
**Hide and Seek**
others.
Hide and Seek is a wonderful way to observe
how children change their manner of play over
time. Younger children often hide
in obvious places?sometimes in plain view?and
often hide in the same place a
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18. Game idea: Hide and seek
**Hide and Seek**
friend was just hiding. They also tend to give away
their hiding place by
saying things like, “You can’t find me” or giggling
while they are being looked
for. As children get older, their hiding skills become
more advanced, and they
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19. Game idea: Hide and seek
**Hide and Seek**
begin to develop strategies to reach home base
without being caught.
You can track milestones by adding a little
more structure to the game. For example, tell
children to hide under or behind
something, or have the seeker call out where they
see their friends (e.g., “Joe
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20. Game idea: Hide and seek
**Hide and Seek**
is behind the tree.”). Place children in pairs or
small groups and have them
decide where the group will hide before the
counting begins. Have the children
choose and pretend to be characters who might
look for each other (e.g., a
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21. Game idea: Hide and seek
**Hide and Seek**
knight searching for dragons or a mother duck
looking for her ducklings).
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